Letter: Lott must step down from his role in Senate

Monday, Dec. 16, 2002 | 9:19 a.m.

If not so deadly serious, it would be hilarious to hear the ultra right-wing conservatives vainly attempting to excuse Republican Sen. Trent Lott's praise of Sen. Strom Thurmond. Lott frighteningly enough is scheduled to be the Senate majority leader in January. Lott said our country would have been better off if Thurmond had been elected president in 1948! It is documented that Lott also praised Thurmond in the same way in 1980.

Republicans are stumbling all over themselves trying to excuse such stupidity. They are actually saying Lott was just trying to "make the old guy feel good" on the occasion of his 100th birthday! Oh, really? Since when does longevity excuse a lifetime of racism and hatred? Would any normal intelligent person also celebrate the birthday of, and praise, Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin or others of their ilk simply because they had reached the age of 100?

Thurmond is one of those responsible for millions of our American black people and their children being denied the right to vote, to be educated, even to have the "right" to be served in restaurants. Despite the Emancipation Proclamation, until Martin Luther King arrived, many American citizens were treated in ways that will forever remain as one of the most shameful pages in our history.

Decent Americans must strongly demand the censure and immediate resignation of Lott. In our supposedly enlightened age, there is absolutely no excuse for this type of person to be allowed to represent our country for even one more day.

RUTH DIMAGGIO